A Fool Looks Back

A lot of things happened this week.

BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) reportedly wants to take the easy way out. Shares of the company behind the fading smartphone platform moved higher on Friday after sources told Reuters that BlackBerry's board is weighing the decision to go private.

The allure of attempting a turnaround without having to please the market every three months is a reasonable strategy. There's also value in the different parts of BlackBerry's business, and that kind of carving-out process is less messy if it's done behind the scenes.

Wanting to go private and actually achieving the transaction are two entirely different things. We've seen proposed privatization efforts come undone. Shareholders can object. Financing can be hard to secure.

The bad news is that BlackBerry's going to have to spend money to make money. Its share of the smartphone market is shrinking, and the ballyhooed BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system upgrade wasn't enough to woo potential smartphone buyers. Being public provides easier access to raising capital, and BlackBerry can't afford too many more miscues.

Briefly in the newsAnd now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

Priceline.com(NASDAQ:PCLN) nearly hit the magical share price of $1,000 after posting another quarter of blowout financial results. Investors should be used to this by now, as the "name your own price" travel portal has beaten Wall Street's profit targets every single quarter since early 2006.

Zillow(NASDAQ:ZG) posted a 69% surge in revenue for its latest quarter, surprising the market with a small adjusted profit. The housing recovery seems to be the real deal, at least if we're going by traffic to the leading residential real estate hub.

Universal Display(NASDAQ:OLED) was able to shine bright after a strong showing of its own. The OLED technology pioneer saw revenue and earnings climb 65% and 40%, respectively, in its latest quarter. Analysts concerned about slipping orders were willing to settle for far less. It's always nice when you surprise on the upside.

Author

Rick has been writing for Motley Fool since 1995 where he's a Consumer and Tech Stocks Specialist. Yes, that's a long time. He's been an analyst for Motley Fool Rule Breakers and a portfolio lead analyst for Motley Fool Supernova since each newsletter service's inception. He earned his BBA and MBA from the University of Miami, and he now lives a block from his alma mater.
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